Page 39 of To Save a Kingdom

Elessan snarled, baring his fangs. Aliya’s aunt… She must be, she’d called Aliya her niece. But… “Where is Aliya?” He punctuated each word by smashing her head into the wall. If he wasn’t careful, he would risk cracking her skull, and he didn’t know if shifting shape would heal bones or bleeding in the brain. If he killed this shifter, he’d have no way of finding out what had happened to the real Aliya.

Icy coils worked their way from his torso through his blood. She had to be okay. She had to be…

His gaze dipped to where Aliya’s pendant hung against the impersonator’s chest. It bore the Svialto family crest and had been an heirloom on Aliya’s mother’s side since the beginning of the Human-Elf war.

Aliya wouldn’t have handed that over willingly.

His fingers tightened without conscious thought, and the shifter in his grip gasped, her face turning red.

He inhaled as her neck squished, collapsing from one breath to the next, a pool of blackness congealing at his feet. Aliya’s dress pooled around it.

The furry ball exploded, lunging between his legs and across the room before he could react. The cat raced up the tallest bookshelf, well out of his reach. Settling on the top, she arched her back and floofed her tail, spitting at him.

Elessan blinked, jaw hanging open. Malkov’s pet was a shapeshifter. Did Aliya know?

Who was he kidding? Of course, she did. The animal had been at her side since Malkov’s death, always nearby. It would be impossible for her not to have figured it out.

A gaping maw opened in his chest. If Aliya had known and hadn’t seen fit to share that information with him, they had more trust issues than he realized.

And he hadn’t helped the situation by letting Tsara ambush and kiss him in the corridor.

If only he’d been allowed his bow and arrow in Aliya’s presence, so he could threaten the truth out of the shifter. What was the cat’s name again? Aliya had told him once, but he’d never thought it would be important.

“Who are you?” he asked, squeezing both hands into fist at his side.

The cat growled deep in its chest. “I don’t see why I should tell you, mountain elf scum.”

He ground his teeth. This was what he got for wasting time with questions he mostly knew the answer to. “Where is Aliya?”

The animal looked away.

“She’s not in the castle,” he said. “Obviously.”

“Obviously,” the shifter parroted, disdain dripping from the word.

“So she’s out there, by herself.” He swallowed the bitter acid taste boiling up the back of his throat, his jaw clenching. “Without protection while Brooks and whomever else he’s allied with have several Whisperers, and who will kill her the instant they find her?” Or the minute she stumbled into the affected range for one of those blasted devices. He ripped one hand through his hair. Of all the idiotic, stupid, inconceivable—

“She’s not alone.” The cat raised an eyebrow. “You think so little of your so-called beloved’s intelligence that she, the queen, would venture out unprotected?” The shifter scoffed, the sound unnerving coming from the small, furry body.

Something in Elessan’s chest relaxed. Aliya wasn’t alone.

“Who’d she take?” His brain rifled through the list of trusted guards she could’ve had accompany her, and came up short.

The night-cursed animal just glared at him.

Elessan growled in the back of his throat. “Who’s with her?”

She stared at him for a breath before rolling her eyes. “The moon elf general.”

Zadé.

Elessan didn’t know if he should be concerned or grateful. At least Zadé was an accomplished warrior, with enough experience to keep Aliya out of trouble. When she was sober.

“Where did they go?” he ground out. If they only had a few hours’ head start on him, there was a decent chance he’d catch them while they camped overnight.

The cat raised its eyebrow and licked its nose, glaring at him with its piercing silver eyes. “Where do you think the general would’ve dragged her off to, mountain elf?”

Elessan frowned, his focus shifting to the distance as he thought back to the last couple of days. “Brisimin.”